


Rooted

by Silveny-Dreams (VintageOT5)



Category: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger
Genre: Chaos, Gen, Sleepovers, don't read this if you haven't finished flashback, fits into canon, general mayhem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2020-02-09 20:58:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18645991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VintageOT5/pseuds/Silveny-Dreams
Summary: Sophie Elizabeth Foster already knew she was one of the most unusual elves her world had ever seen…something she kind of resented the Black Swan for and constantly tried to forget. She also knew she was the only elf who hadn’t been raised in the elven world, so there were a lot of things she was still learning (and un-learning) after living so long with humans.So when the tight knot of emotions Councilor Bronte had taught her to make under her ribs started…trembling, every now and then…she figured it was either one of two things. Either this was completely normal for an inflictor and she just didn’t know enough about it yet, or it was the result of something the Black Swan had done to her DNA that made her yet another exception to all the elven rules.(She was rooting for the first one.)Or the one where Sophie and her friends prove they are incapable of having a normal sleepover, and that chaos and destruction seem to love them way too much.





	Rooted

**Author's Note:**

> DO NOT read this if you haven't read all of Flashback, unless you're okay with spoilers. I will NOT be responsible for spoiling things accidentally.
> 
> Did I take some creative liberty? Yes. For example: as you'll see, Tam is present. Also, no romance, something Shannon herself cannot say she does.

Sophie Elizabeth Foster already knew she was one of the most unusual elves her world had ever seen…something she kind of resented the Black Swan for and constantly tried to forget. She also knew she was the only elf who hadn’t been raised in the elven world, so there were a lot of things she was still learning (and un-learning) after living so long with humans.

So when the tight knot of emotions Councilor Bronte had taught her to make under her ribs started… _trembling,_ every now and then…she figured it was either one of two things. Either this was completely normal for an inflictor and she just didn’t know enough about it yet, or it was the result of something the Black Swan had done to her DNA that made her yet another exception to all the elven rules.

(She was rooting for the first one.)

“Describe the feeling to me again,” Bronte insisted when Sophie brought it up in her inflicting lesson.

Sophie shrugged, rubbing her fingers along her abdomen where the knot rested. “It isn’t like the knot is unraveling or anything. It stays tightly wound. It just…shakes, every now and then. Like that swoop in your stomach when you skip a step on the stairs, only…not up and down. From side to side?”

Bronte blinked, and Sophie blushed.

“May I transmit my memory of the feeling to you?” She asked, embarrassed.

Bronte nodded, and once Sophie had done it, she studied his face.

He kept his eyes shut, nodding to signal he’d gotten the memory. Her heart sank, however, as his frown deepened.

“This…is interesting,” Bronte said after a long pause.

“It’s not normal, is it,” Sophie mumbled, looking down at her feet.

“Well, I’d posture that you left normal far behind you long ago, Miss Foster,” Bronte said, sounding amused. “However, I wouldn’t be worried.”

“But what is it supposed to mean? What if I just suddenly start inflicting without actually choosing to?” Sophie asked, her mind spiraling through all the horrible possibilities.

“Easy, easy,” Bronte sighed, gesturing his hand up and down. “Breathe. In, out.”

Sophie breathed in and out, slowly.

“Teenagers,” she thought she heard him mutter under his breath. He folded his hands. “I may be centuries old, but I would never be so arrogant as to assume that I knew _everything_ about inflicting. And as you are a special case in many respects, Miss Foster, it is possible there is something new to learn about inflicting through your new experience.”

“And you don’t think it could be a bad thing?” Sophie asked, wishing she wasn’t so hopeful.

Bronte smiled. “Well, it might not be entirely _pleasant_ , as inflicting oftentimes is not. But fear may only make it worse, and we _have_ talked about that in our sessions. While it may be a new sensation, I have a feeling it will be nothing earth-shattering.”

So Sophie left it at that, although she felt a little nervous when the knot trembled again on her way to study hall.

“Hey, there, Gigantor,” Keefe said cheerily to Sophie’s goblin bodyguard, falling into step next to Sophie. “Foster. It’s on.”

“What’s on?” Sophie asked distractedly, rubbing at the knot under her ribs. _Stop moving, please._

“The sleepover! The big slumber party, the one where everyone is invited, since I was with the Neverseen the last time you had one. Not forgiving you guys for that one, by the way.”

“It’s what you get for joining an enemy secret society,” Sophie reminded him, but she grinned and nudged his shoulder when his face fell. “So Lord Cassius is actually okay with this?”

“Somehow,” he said, cheering up a little. “I think maybe he thinks if he’s a good enough host for this thing, I won’t hate him as much…whatever, we’ll see. That’s not the important part, though! It’s going to be at Candleshade, can you believe it?”

He smirked, looking devilish. “Just think—hundreds of stories of mayhem to cause.”

“Please tell me there will be more smashing,” Keefe’s ogre bodyguard, Ro, said, looking as conspiratorial as Keefe. “Smashing makes living in Sparkle Town _so_ much easier.”

“Might be a good time to keep looking for Neverseen clues, too,” Sophie mused as they entered the study hall area. “Everyone else is still on board, right?”

“Yup! Even Bangs Boy agreed to come,” Keefe grinned. “Wanna bet it’s because Linh made him?”

“No, I think you’d win that bet,” Sophie said, finding the table with the rest of her friends and sitting down.

The knot beneath her ribs trembled again, and Sophie scowled, rubbing at the spot again. _Stop that. I mean it_.

“You okay?” Dex whispered as the mentors told all the prodigies to settle down and start studying.

Sophie shrugged. “I’m not, like, hurt or anything. Just…my inflicting knot, you know? It’s acting weird.”

“I knew something was off,” Keefe whispered from Sophie’s other side. “But I got distracted by the sleepover stuff.”

“Your inflicting lesson was today, right?” Dex asked, pretending to flip open a textbook as a mentor passed by. “Did Councilor Bronte know what was happening?”

“Nope,” Sophie grumbled under her breath. “But he doesn’t think I should be worried about it. He says it’s probably ‘nothing earth-shattering’.”

“Okay, so I know I love to make fun of Councilor Pointy-Ears as much as the next person,” Keefe said, “but he’s also, like…ancient. Literally. He’s seen just about anything there is to see. So if he doesn’t think you need to worry, well…he might actually be right, right?”

Sophie sighed. “I guess. He said he doesn’t know _everything_ about inflicting, though.”

“But if anyone could be close to knowing everything about it, it’d be him,” Dex offered.

“Yeah…” Sophie rubbed beneath her ribs again. “Just feels weird, I guess.”

“Can you guys not get us put in detention?” Tam whispered from across the table.

Dex cut him a glare, but decided to actually look at his technopathy textbook. Keefe rolled his eyes and opened up one of his notebooks, continuing work on a doodle in the margins.

Sophie mouthed “sorry” and opened the closest book she had, staring blankly at the page. The knot beneath her ribs tremored again, a tiny little shake.

_Come on. Seriously_. Sophie closed her eyes and thought of memories where she felt things like determination, confidence, certainty. When they came, she used those feelings and created a belt, of sorts, around the knot of emotions.

The knot wobbled against them, but otherwise stayed fairly still.

_And stay that way,_ Sophie admonished it, opening her eyes again and going for her elven history homework.

         --

Sophie was late to Candleshade after school; everyone else was already standing at the gates when she and Sandor light-leapt there.

“I’m starting to think you use green feathers as an accessory,” Biana teased.

Sophie sighed, pulling her backpack further up her shoulder. “Grady made me help him brush Verdi’s teeth, so we can all be thankful that it’s just t-Rex feathers and not t-Rex spit.”

“Eh, it just looks like Verdi loves you,” Fitz said, smiling and plucking a few feathers off her shoulder. Sophie tried desperately to fight the blush, but failed, and had to settle for looking anywhere but at Fitz.

“Aw, but t-Rex spit sounds like it’d cause _much_ more mayhem!”

Sophie turned and saw Keefe on the other side of the gates, unlocking them to let everyone inside.

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll bring a bucket of it next time, so long as you don’t use it on us.”

“Yes, I second that,” Linh agreed, grimacing. “The only good liquid is water.”

Tam rolled his eyes in a way that said “ha, never heard that one before”, and Sophie grinned.

“Come on in to the skyscraper of doom,” Keefe said, swinging the gate open, and everyone followed him to the front doors.

“Welcome!” Lord Cassius said as they all walked into the massive front hall. He was smiling, and although Sophie didn’t care for Lord Cassius that much, she could sense he was a little nervous and felt a little bad.

(Not a lot. Never a lot, not after how he’d treated Keefe. But still…a little.)

“Let’s go up to my room,” Keefe said as everyone set their bags down, heading for the Vortinator.

“I’ve got mallowmelt in the oven and everything to make cinnacreme, if you want it later,” Lord Cassius said as everyone followed along behind Keefe.

“Thanks,” Biana said politely, and Sophie offered him an awkward smile.

The Vortinator was exactly as awful as Sophie remembered; she clutched her stomach as she stepped out, annoyed when she felt her inflicting knot tremble again. What _was_ that?

“These things should never have been invented,” Sophie heard Sandor mutter as they exited the Vortinator, and she grinned.

Ro was in Keefe’s room, sitting cross-legged on the floor and painting her nails.

“Ooh, is it destruction time now?” She asked, looking up from painting her left thumb bright blue.

“Can we make sure we still look for clues?” Fitz reminded them all.

“Pretty sure if there was anything my mom left here about Neverseen business, it’s probably gone,” Keefe said, shrugging. “But yeah. Maybe some fresh eyes will catch something I missed.”

“Let’s not spend the whole night doing smashing and searching,” Biana insisted. “Sleepovers are for fun normal stuff too!”

“We’ve never been to a normal sleepover before,” Linh mused, looping her arm through Tam’s. “Don’t cheat us _completely_ out of that.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Keefe said, grinning conspiratorially. “So where should we begin?”

They began on the floor Keefe had left off searching before, methodically working their way up. Ro seemed very content to point at things and ask, “smash?” and then scowl when Keefe told her no (although he didn’t say no very often). Sophie was vaguely reminded of the Hulk each time Ro did it: a lady Hulk with blue fingernails.

_Everything okay over there?_ Fitz transmitted to Sophie several floors later.

Sophie nodded at him from across the room. _Yeah. My inflicting knot just feels weird._

_Is it feeling too big or too tight again?_ Fitz sounded sympathetic, and Sophie tried not to let it warm her heart.

_Nah, it’s just…moving_ , Sophie said, shrugging as she rubbed at the spot again. She was sure she’d have a bruise from rubbing there eventually.

“Anyone else thirsty?” Dex asked as Ro gleefully broke a lamp over her knee.

“Yeah, I was just thinking about that cinnacreme your dad mentioned,” Biana told Keefe, hopping down from inspecting the bookshelf.

Keefe sighed. “Must we? I just…my dad…”

“We can kick him out,” Sophie said, nudging Keefe’s shoulder. “He probably has boring adult stuff he wants to do anyway.”

“Just can we please not go back down on the Vortinator?” Tam asked, looking pale. “That thing is…not a friend of my stomach.”

“Right there with you,” Sophie heard Sandor say under his breath, and she bit her lip to keep from laughing.

Keefe rolled his eyes. “I mean, we don’t _have_ to…but the stairs take a million years.”

“Then we’ll only use them to go down,” Linh decided for them all.

Keefe was absolutely right; Sophie counted 12,436 stairs on their way down, and by the time they reached the main floor, everyone was thirsty.

“I think it’s slightly burnt,” Lord Cassius said, frowning at the pan of mallowmelt he was pulling out of the oven. “Maybe I should start again.”

“I’ll take a piece,” Dex offered, shrugging when Keefe glared at him. “What? I’m hungry now, too.”

Everyone ended up taking a piece. It _was_ slightly burnt, but it was still achingly delicious, and Sophie ate the whole thing faster than she wanted to—she wanted to be polite, but she didn’t want Lord Cassius to think she approved of him.

“We’ll make the cinnacreme, Dad, we have the recipe here,” Keefe said, looking more and more uncomfortable each minute Lord Cassius stayed in the kitchen.

Lord Cassius’s mouth pressed into a tight line, but he forced a smile and nodded. “If you need anything, I’ll be in my study.”

“We won’t, don’t worry,” Keefe muttered as Lord Cassius made his way out.

“At least he’s trying,” Biana offered, hopping up and sitting on the counter.

Keefe scoffed and said nothing, rummaging in the pantry.

“Forget cinnacreme. Who wants lushberry juice?” Keefe asked reemerging with a couple flasks of it.

“Ooh, gimme,” Linh said, making grabby hands.

Sophie sipped at hers while everyone else drank, concentrating on making a thicker “belt” around the knot beneath her ribs.

_If you’re going to shake like this, at least let me know_ why, she thought grumpily.

“So where next?” Tam asked as he polished off his cup of lushberry juice.

“Isn’t that enough searching and smashing for one night?” Biana protested. “I say it’s time to do normal sleepover stuff now.”

Ro gave Biana a Look that said, “ex _cuse_ me?” and Sophie fought a smile.

“And what kind of normal sleepover stuff is that?” Dex asked.

Biana grinned, her expression suddenly looking very much like Ro’s when Keefe told her she should smash something.

“Games like truth or dare,” she said, waggling her eyebrows.

“Oh, brother, here we go,” Sophie heard Fitz mutter under his breath.

“Come on, who’s with me?” Biana looked over a Sophie with pleading eyes.

Sophie very studiously took a long, deep sip of her lushberry juice and avoided Biana’s gaze.

“Please, you guys?” Linh asked, and it was Linh asking that did it.

“Fine,” everyone grumbled.

“Truth or dare always works out weird for me,” Sophie mumbled as they left the kitchen and made their way back to the front hall.

“Just so everyone knows, I have _loads_ of mayhem-causing supplies in my room for our dares,” Keefe announced, and everyone groaned again.

“Are you sure you want a normal sleepover, sis?” Tam asked Linh.

Linh shrugged. “How bad can it be?”

“Oh, just wait,” Fitz muttered. “It gets really awkward really fast.”

“Doesn’t anyone else remember the pranking supplies Keefe had in his room?” Tam asked. “Because I do. If we have to go anywhere near that stuff, we’ll probably all need showers.”

“I’m sure we can…” Sophie started, trailing off as the group came to a stop in the front hall. Sophie looked around, confused, and quickly understood why.

Lady Gisela stood in the middle of the room.

Sophie’s blood turned to ice.

What?

No.

No.

No, no, no.

This was the _last_ thing she wanted to deal with right now.

Sophie felt her inflicting knot begin trembling again; of all the people that should be there, Lady Gisela wasn’t one.

“Mom?” Keefe whispered after a long silence.

Lady Gisela looked out of breath, and Sophie saw that her hair looked slightly disheveled, as well.

“I see you waited until I no longer live here to have your little friends over,” Lady Gisela said, sounding a little out of breath, as well.

The goblin bodyguards and Ro growled, stepping forward, but Lady Gisela whipped out the same weapon she’d used on Ro in Atlantis, the one filled with soporodine. “Come, now, I’m not stupid. Stay back if you’d like to live.”

“Mom, how did you even get in here?” Keefe asked. “We have, like, loads of security to keep you out.”

Lady Gisela smiled. “Yes, I’ve noticed your father’s feeble attempts. It’s amusing to think I don’t have my methods.”

“You need to get out,” Keefe said, his voice hardening. “Or, better yet, we need to get the Council here to exile you.”

“Yes, yes, the usual threats,” Lady Gisela said, waving that away with her hand. “Unfortunately, we have no time for that. _You_ need to come with me.”

Keefe snorted derisively. “Funny. You’re funny. I’m not going _anywhere_ with you.”

“Then you’ll need to change your mind quickly,” Lady Gisela said, moving towards him.

“Stay back!”

Sophie and the rest of her friends all grouped in front of Keefe, although Sophie noticed Biana was missing. The knot beneath her ribs kept trembling, but Sophie ignored it.

“There isn’t any time for this,” Lady Gisela sighed, impatient. “Believe it or not, I’m actually trying to save your life.”

“Yeah? Explain how that works,” Dex argued, and Sophie saw his hands were in his pockets, probably reaching for gadgets of some kind.

“It’s no use explaining, since none of you plan to believe me,” Lady Gisela said dryly. Sophie noticed her eyes darting around the group, assessing.

“We aren’t letting you near Keefe,” Sophie told her, feeling her hands go for the goblin throwing stars Sandor had given her. “And it sounds like you aren’t leaving without him. So you might as well start explaining.”

Lady Gisela rolled her eyes, but she sighed. “It seems we’ve been played.”

“Who? The Neverseen?” Fitz asked.

“No, the Council, we’re on the best of terms, don’t you know?” Gisela drawled. “Yes. The Neverseen.”

“How did you get played?” Tam asked.

Lady Gisela pursed her lips, looking reluctant. “It appears something of ours that we thought was safe has been stolen.”

“And what would that be?” Sophie asked.

Lady Gisela smiled coldly. “I may be explaining, but I’m not giving you every detail.”

_Any guesses?_ Sophie transmitted to them all.

_Maybe…_ Keefe trailed off, eyes widening a little. _Maybe we_ do _have the real caches after all._

Sophie almost whistled; wow. If Keefe hadn’t been played by the Neverseen, if he really _had_ stolen the real caches back…

That would explain why Gisela wanted Keefe to come with her. Well…it _sort_ of explained it.

_Biana?_ Sophie transmitted farther out.

_I’m finding Lord Cassius_ , Biana thought. _I’ll get him to hail the Council or light-leap to Eternalia._

_Quickly,_ Sophie transmitted. No one could be sure how fast things could get ugly.

“It appears you’re consulting one another,” Gisela remarked.

“Why not just take the stolen thing back? Why Keefe?” Linh asked.

“Ah,” Lady Gisela said, sounding a little weary. “Well. You’ve all seen how tenuous the truce between Vespera and me is. It appears she and I have differing opinions on how to get our stolen property back.”

_Property? So…maybe just_ one _cache?_ Fitz transmitted.

_Could be_ , Sophie replied.

“Let me guess…Vespera’s method has something to do with murder?” Dex asked.

“You understand,” Gisela said, sounding a little relieved. “And despite what you think of me, I _do_ love you, Keefe. Your murder would be unnecessary and deeply painful to me.”

_So…she’s here out of the goodness of her heart?_ Linh thought, and Sophie transmitted the thought around the group.

_There’s got to be more to it than that,_ Keefe thought coldly. _She never does anything out of the goodness of her heart, especially not saving my life._

_I’m back_ , Biana thought, and Sophie saw her reappear behind them. _Lord Cassius is going for help_.

“So let me get this straight,” Keefe said. “I stole something from the Neverseen, the Neverseen want it back, and all you want is to keep Vespera from murdering me by bringing me back with you, with the stolen thing?”

“That sounds like an accurate recap,” Gisela said, smiling.

“Yeah? Well I think _that_ sounds like a load of sparkly alicorn poop,” Keefe growled. “Let me explain what’s _really_ happening here. I stole something from the Neverseen. Vespera wants it back by any means necessary. You and Vespera don’t get along, and she thinks you don’t have the right kind of guts for the Neverseen’s plans, anyway. So you’re not just here to get the stolen stuff back and save my life. You’re here to get me, and the stolen thing _,_ to stay in Vespera’s good graces. That way she won’t kill you just because you’re in the way, _and_ she won’t kill me, either, so you don’t have to feel guilty for letting me die.”

Lady Gisela’s smile turned cold.

“Your words, not mine,” she replied icily. “Although perhaps you aren’t as much of a fool as you used to be.”

“Don’t talk about Keefe that way,” Sophie snarled, ignoring the way her inflicting knot trembled without restraint.

“This is becoming boring,” Gisela said dully. “All of you will step away from my son, or you will all have planting ceremonies in the Wanderling Woods faster than you can imagine.”

“How interesting.”

Sophie looked behind Gisela and clenched her teeth. Vespera, Ruy, and Alvar were walking across the room towards Gisela.

The goblins and Ro growled again, settling into attack stances. Sophie saw Fitz’s fists clench, and she quickly transmitted to him, _Hey, it’s going to be okay, just focus._

Gisela spun around smoothly. “It appears my husband’s security skills truly are incompetent.”

“You just aren’t as untraceable to us as you think,” Ruy said, smiling menacingly. “We have our ways.”

“How interesting,” Gisela said, sounding bored. “As you can see, I am here to retrieve our stolen property from my son, so it appears your little visit here was unnecessary.”

“Oh, it’s still necessary,” Alvar said. “We know you aren’t above double-crossing us for leverage. We’re here to make sure you do what you need to do, no tricks.”

“Nice to know you’re down with my murder, buddy,” Keefe called to Alvar. “Really good bonding we did a few months back.”

 Alvar shifted uncomfortably, looking pointedly at Gisela and not anywhere else.

“Have you asked him where it is?” Vespera asked in her soft, eerie voice.

“Unfortunately, I have had to spend my time convincing my son’s little friends not to waste their time attacking me,” Gisela admitted. “It would be a waste of soporodine.”

“Then maybe just, I don’t know, _don’t use it?”_ Dex retorted.

“You are still not ready,” Vespera told Gisela softly. “Your attachment to your son and his wellbeing is a weakness that keeps you from acting in the most efficient way.”

“Murder is never efficient,” Sophie heard herself say. “And I won’t let you do it.”

Vespera turned from Lady Gisela and stared Sophie down. “There is nothing you can do.”

Without turning her gaze from Sophie, Vespera flicked her arm into a hidden pocket in her dress, pulled out a knife, and threw it at Lady Gisela’s side with lightning speed.

Gisela’s shocked, pained cry made Sophie wince. Sophie glanced at Lady Gisela as she crumpled to the floor, clutching a steadily-growing red splotch in her side.

Without thinking about doing it, Sophie took several strides forward until she was in front of all of her friends.

“You will not touch them,” she said, not sure why she was so certain.

The knot beneath her ribs continued trembling, feeling as though it might explode.

“Then you will be disposed of first,” Vespera murmured.

Sophie smiled, still having no clue where her confidence was coming from. “Try me.”

Vespera smiled that cold, haunting smile and lunged for Sophie, and for a moment, everything slowed down.

Sophie considered her options. Teleporting or light-leaping was absolutely out of the question; she couldn’t leave her friends vulnerable to the Neverseen like that, not in a million years. Vespera was wearing her circlet, too, so inflicting would only hurt the people she didn’t want to hurt.

That left only physical options. It was too late to go for any of Sandor’s throwing stars, so combat was out. She could dodge out of the way, move her friends with her. Or she could lunge forward, herself, rise to Vespera’s threat…

_No_ , something in Sophie decided. None of that felt right. They’d always forced her hand, forced Sophie and her friends to move. She felt the answer in every muscle of her body even as that something in Sophie spoke again.

_This time, you hold steady. You stand your ground. You plant yourself right here, and you make_ them _move._

Vespera moved closer, closer…Sophie felt as though something within her was racing towards Vespera, ready to meet her, moving from the soles of her feet and up through her veins.

The knot of emotions beneath her ribs stopped trembling at last, grew uncommonly still.

_This is for your friends. For your human family. For Grady and Edaline. For Jolie. For Kenric._

Vespera’s hands reached Sophie’s shoulders.

_You are unshakeable_ , that something within Sophie whispered.

And the knot beneath her ribs plummeted straight down.

No one, not even Sophie, could have explained what happened then.

All Sophie knew was that one moment, she felt Vespera’s hands touch her shoulders, and the next, a deafening _BOOM_ exploded all around her. Unblinking, Sophie watched as Vespera flew back through the air, as if Sophie had wholloped her in the stomach with an unbelievably powerful Sucker Punch.

And it wasn’t just Vespera; Lady Gisela, Ruy, and Alvar were flying back, too. Sophie felt like she had sprouted roots, anchoring her to the floor, into the earth underneath, from the soles of her feet. She was anchored, unmoving, her muscles feeling inflexible as steel.

She saw a ripple on the floor, and realized that…it _was_ the floor. The floor was _rippling_ , tile and stone alike, in one massive wave…as if it had come out of her.

Sophie heard her friends shrieking behind her, heard some muffled curses as they shuffled closer. The _BOOM_ continued to ricochet and reverberate off of every wall, every surface. It was like standing in the middle of a hundred-story-tall vibrating tuning fork, and also like being in the eye of a hurricane. Although Sophie never turned, she knew her friends were okay, that they hadn’t suffered the Neverseen’s fate.

Vespera and her compatriots hit the walls and crumpled to the floor, unmoving. Or, as unmoving as anything could be in a room, a floor, a _building_ that vibrated like a freshly plucked guitar string.

“What is this?” Keefe shouted over the cacophony of noise that Candleshade was making.

Sophie heard herself speak without realizing she was doing it. “Don’t move. Stay close to me.”

“What’s going on?” Dex shouted. “What’s happening?”

Sophie closed her eyes. The knot of emotions, now planted like a meteor in her gut, was trembling as violently as everything around her. An unfathomably deep rumbling came from beneath them, from beneath the floor, beneath the building.

“What—” someone said.

And then the earth in front of them split open with a deafening _CRACK_.

Her friends screamed, backing away. Sophie set her jaw, feeling some of the control she didn’t know she had slipping.

_Don’t move_ , something inside Sophie said.

“Come on!” Fitz grabbed Sophie’s arm, preparing to drag her away.

“No!” Sophie yanked her arm away, staring down at the yawning chasm emerging in front of them and straining to regain control. “I can’t move!”

“Yes, you can! We have to get out!” Biana argued.

“ _No_ ,” Sophie insisted. “I _can’t!_ If I move, I lose my grip.”

“Your grip on _what?”_ Tam shouted.

Sophie shook her head, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists. Furniture and pieces of building began to tumble into the chasm around them.

It felt the way telekinesis felt, like there were extra arms she could guide. It made no sense—it _never_ made any sense—but she moved them, wrapped them around all the shaking, all the noise, all the ripples and shockwaves. If she didn’t get a hold on them, they wouldn’t be hers anymore. Whatever that voice within Sophie was knew that it would ripple across the entire surface of the world, breaking and crumbling and destroying anything that stood upon it.

Candleshade, she could let go. Everything else…Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, felt those extra “arms”, and _pulled._ Pulled them into herself, like she could wrestle the roiling earth and waving force into a bear hug.

_You will not move_ , that voice inside Sophie spoke, not loud, unwavering. _You are unshakeable_.

And she would keep everything beyond Candleshade that way, too.

“ _Go!”_ She bellowed over the noise, feeling sweat on her temples, on her sides, from her efforts.

“We aren’t just leaving you here!” Keefe sounded desperate.

“You’re the one who knows the way out, get them out! Get our stuff and get out!” Sophie argued, feeling the shockwaves she was trying to control strain against her in protest.

“You’re my charge, I won’t leave you!” Sandor shouted back over the noise.

“I’ve _got_ this, Sandor, get them out!” Sophie insisted.

“Listen to her, come on!” Linh shouted, and she heard feet shuffling, heard her friends finally move toward the doors.

Sandor yelled in protest, and Ro tried to calm him down. Sophie imagined that Ro was dragging him out by whatever force necessary, and for that she was grateful; Candleshade was getting more and more dangerous by the second.

Sophie’s stance never wavered, but she felt her legs begin to tremble. The earth, the voice within her explained, did not like to be moved. So when the earth was _made_ to move, it did not want to stop until it had run its course.

_But you know the earth_ , that voice told Sophie. _The earth listens to you_.

At surface level, Sophie doubted that very much; that made no sense at all. She also desperately _wanted_ it to be true. And given the evidence, given that it appeared _she_ had made the shockwaves start…maybe it _was_ true.

_Then listen to me,_ Sophie thought desperately, as if she thought she could talk to the earth. She channeled more energy into her vise grip on the tremors, staring into the yawning chasm in front of her. _Listen to me. No more. Let go. Rest._

The tremors lashed out against the invisible, incomprehensible grip she had on them, almost as if in protest. Sophie gritted her teeth tightly, cramping her jaw, unrelenting.

It was Sophie against the earthquake, neither giving an inch for a very long minute. And then—Sophie could have cried in relief, if she’d had enough energy—she felt the resistance against her stranglehold weaken.

She pulled, pulled, _pulled_ at the shattering force, at the roiling earth, feeling it retreat little by little. The chasm slowly began to close back up, debris still falling into it like shooting stars.

Sophie wrangled the force of the tremors until it was close enough that it vibrated through her feet, threatening to uproot her firmly planted stance.

_You are unshakeable_ , the voice said. _Hold on_.

Sophie gasped in a breath and strained one last time, hearing a choked scream over the crashing and breaking that might have been her own. And then, to her great relief, the knot of emotions planted in her gut finally lifted again, settling back underneath her ribs.

The chasm rumbled as it closed shut, the building still going to pieces around it. Deafening cracks and shatters sounded all around her as Sophie crumpled down to her knees, feeling her abdominal muscles finally relax. The earth had listened to her. The earth _knew_ her, she guessed.

“Always something new,” she mumbled as she braced herself on her hands and knees on the only patch of unbroken floor around her. Boy, she was tired of “new”. Heck, she was just _tired._ And now that she wasn’t standing firm, rooted and immovable, her body suddenly couldn’t stop shaking, convulsing.

Debris continued to rain down around her, and Sophie wondered for a moment how she’d managed not to get hit by anything yet. Maybe she’d kept her immediate surroundings steady when she’d been rooted like a tree.

“ _Sophie!”_ She heard somebody bellow, but it wasn’t as loud as she knew it should sound. In fact, the din around her was growing softer and softer, which wasn’t right. Sophie knew that feeling, knew she was on the brink of collapse. It was probably a bad thing that she knew what the brink of collapse was like, wasn’t it…

She felt someone grab her around the waist and heard one last loud _BOOM_ and shattering before everything went black, silent, and all was finally still.

            --

The air was dusty when Sophie began to wake.

“Does anyone have any idea what happened?” Sophie heard Linh ask from somewhere around her.

She heard a snort. “You mean, besides my hundreds-of-stories tall childhood home crumbling entirely into dust around my dear old mother?”

“Are you actually upset about it, Keefe?” Sophie heard Fitz ask.

“Nope,” Keefe responded, popping the “P”. “I would’ve demolished it myself if I knew how.”

“Do _we_ know how it happened?” Biana asked quietly.

There was a brief silence, then Tam said, “Well, she said she had a grip on something.”

“Will any of us be surprised if she did it?”

“ _No one_ will be surprised,” Keefe told Dex. “This is Foster we’re talking about.”

“Let’s not make fun of her this time,” Linh begged. “She’s been through enough.”

Sophie thought back to her inflicting session with Councilor Bronte the day before as she gave a weak cough.

“Sophie, you okay?” Fitz said, and she felt someone take one of her hands.

“‘Nothing earth-shattering’, my foot,” she wheezed.

“What is she talking about?” Fitz asked as Dex and Keefe dissolved into laughter.

Sophie blinked her eyes open and saw Fitz sitting by the right side of her head, holding her hand and looking confused.

“Ask Councilor Bronte,” she rasped, coughing weakly again.

“Maybe we should move someplace else,” Biana suggested, pulling the edge of her cape over her nose. “Candleshade made a lot of dust.”

“How are you feeling? Can you stand?” Fitz asked Sophie, squeezing her hand.

Sophie ignored her usual chest-fluttering and took a quick inventory. Besides feeling like she’d swum the English Channel without any prior training or a balanced breakfast, she couldn’t detect anything bad.

“Shouldn’t risk it,” Keefe said, and before Fitz or Sophie could protest, he’d scooped Sophie up into his arms and started walking.

“I can walk,” Sophie protested feebly.

Keefe rolled his eyes. “Okay, Foster.”

He didn’t put her down, and Sophie didn’t really want him to, anyway; not-walking was probably easier than walking right now.

“Where are the goblins? Ro?” Sophie asked.

“The goblins light-leapt to your family’s houses to let them know what happened, once they knew you were safe,” Keefe explained. “I’ll be surprised if Sandor and Ro ever speak to each other again.”

“Not my fault!” Sophie heard Ro say from somewhere she couldn’t see, and Sophie felt a little smile on the corners of her mouth.

“Who got me out?” Sophie asked, hearing the others start to follow behind Keefe.

Keefe shrugged. “Eh.”

Sophie’s eyes narrowed; she knew that answer. “Keefe.”

“You were right; I _do_ know the way in and out of my own house,” Keefe said. He looked down at her and raised his eyebrows.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, leaning her head against his shoulder and coughing again.

“For what?” Keefe asked, and then he grinned and winked so quickly that Sophie couldn’t tell if he’d done it on purpose, or if his eye had just twitched.

_So is there a reason you almost got crushed by a building?_

Sophie blinked and saw Fitz pull into stride next to Keefe. _Um…_ she transmitted back.

_You can tell me. I can keep a secret._

_I’m not really sure what happened,_ Sophie admitted. _I just know that I…no, I really don’t know. I think I stopped it? But also maybe I started it._

_We didn’t see anyone else come out of the rubble,_ Fitz transmitted softly. _But the Neverseen are masters of secrecy, and I bet they’ll investigate the wreckage, so we’ll know soon._

Sophie winced; how had she forgotten that elves might have _died_ in there? _I know what you’ll say, but I’m sorry about Alvar, even if he’s not there, and even if he is_.

_It’s whatever_ , Fitz shrugged, and Sophie gave him a Look; that was exactly what she knew he’d say.

“Would you two stop having your secret conversation and fill us in?” Biana asked from behind them.

“I don’t really know what happened,” Sophie said, explaining about the strange tremors she’d felt in the knot of emotions she used for inflicting, how she’d felt rooted to her spot like a tree when the knot dropped and the explosion happened, how she’d somehow hugged the earthquake back into the earth…

“Never a dull moment,” Tam finally said, and Sophie snorted in agreement.

“I’m sure Dad will be back from Eternalia soon with the Council…might need to gear up for another Foster tribunal,” Keefe said, and when Sophie sighed, he had the good grace not to smirk.

“I hailed Forkle on my Imparter, and he’ll be here soon, too,” Dex said. “He said he wants to look over the final DNA results for Project Moonlark again to see if there are any answers there.”

“Getting real tired of being the Moonlark,” Sophie grumbled, and when everyone laughed, it sounded less like teasing and more like sympathy.

“We’re with you, Sophie, no matter what happens,” Linh reassured her, catching up to Keefe and laying a hand on Sophie’s arm.

Keefe stopped walking and gently helped Sophie sit on the ground. “For real, Foster. Pretty sure all of us would go to Exile for you. And we’d be prepared for the massive stabby crabs this time.”

Sophie couldn’t say anything for a minute; looking around at all her friends’ faces made her throat feel strangely tight.

“I…thanks, guys,” she murmured.

Biana and Dex sat down on either side of her and put their arms over her shoulders.

“We already know you’d do the same for us,” Biana grinned.

“Yeah, you literally exploded everything except us,” Dex joked. “We know your priorities are good. I’ll bet the Neverseen are definitely scared of you now.”

“Maybe they should be,” Sophie mused, and it wasn’t self-deprecating when she said it this time.

_You are unshakeable_ , that voice inside reminded her, and Sophie decided to believe it.

She wouldn’t move, and she wouldn’t let her friends move, either. Those who tried to push them? _They_ would move.

What could the Neverseen do against a girl even the earth couldn’t shake?

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie, I am DYING to know what you thought of this fic. I am, like, unbelievably proud of this thing. VALIDATE ME IN THE COMMENTS.  
> (or, you know, tell me how much it sucked in the comments. Either way. The important part is that you comment.)
> 
> If you're down for more content starring the Squad of Chaos That Is Sophie And Her Friends, come look me up on Tumblr at @silveny-dreams! I make all Ze Keeper Mems there.
> 
> Much love to you all xx


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